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New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Bruce Dessau's rating
Reader rating
Funny curmudgeon: Sean Hughes
Sean Hughes is only 43 years old but life’s slings and arrows have taken their toll. The one-time impish Irishman admits that he wakes too early, naps unexpectedly and sighs when he does not mean to. Add the fact that when he gave up smoking he got a fat face and he has every right to be a curmudgeon. Luckily he is a very funny curmudgeon too.
Last time Hughes toured he incurred audience wrath for joking about the Madeleine McCann case. This time there is a whole new tranche of tamer taboos, from Michael Jackson to Iggy Pop, who stamped on Hughes’s rebellious ideals by doing insurance ads. His most daring and surprisingly well-received tirade attacked Stephen Fry, who, he suggests, also ditched his integrity by taking the advertising shilling à la Iggy.
These are just a few of the targets in a wide-ranging whinge, with Hughes constantly coming up with quickfire back references and returning to seemingly deserted topics, suggesting considerable craft beneath the scattershot appearance. Some riffs, particularly one about the Human League’s political forays, are admittedly funnier if you recall the Eighties. As he says, younger fans may view the show as a documentary about ageing.
This is an intelligent piece that skilfully weaves audience banter and self-deprecation about his enduring bachelordom into general comedic observations about Page Three pin-ups and reality television. Towards the end there is even a routine about his strict Catholic upbringing which sheds light on Hughes’s skewed vision. Not laugh-a-second but the gags are well worth the wait.
Bloomsbury Theatre, 15 October. Information: 020 7388 8822 www. thebloomsbury.com
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
As a fellow Irish Catholic who may have travelled more than Hughes, I suggest that his vision only seems "skewed" when he is in the UK which I have found is a country that has no collective vision.
Hughes should try spending some time in other countries which have retained their long term vision on life, like the millions of British ex pats who have left what they percieve is a cultural mess to seek quality of life (and better weather!).
- Mark, Essex
He looks bloody dreadful in that photo,-red eyes painted beard,hair and eyebrows,-I just hope he made somebody laugh,he seems to have aged very quickly.
- Auf Deutsch, Canterbury Kentish Gulag EUSSR.
